Hungarian Grammar For Beginners

Negation – Nem…Van or Nincs?

Take a look at these sentences and you’ll see what I mean, but first a small summary:

nem…van/vannak = is/are not
>expressing existence

nincs/nincsenek = there is/are no, there isn’t/aren’t any
>expressing something, someone is not to be found somewhere

POSITIVE SENTENCES:
Az autó a garázsban van. – The car is in the garage.
Az autók a garázsban vannak. – The cars are in the garage.
A labda a strandon van. – The ball is on the beach.
A labdák a strandon vannak. – The balls are on the beach.

NEGATIVE SENTENCES WITH NINCS:
Az autó nincs a garázsban. – There’s no car in the garage.
Az autók nincsenek a garázsban. – There are no cars in the garage.
A labda nincs a strandon. – There’s no ball on the beach.
A labdák nincsenek a strandon. – There are no balls on the beach.

NEGATIVE SENTENCES WITH NEM…VAN:
Az autó nem a garázsban van. – The car is not in the garage.
Az autók nem a garázsban vannak. – The cars are not in the garage.
A labda nem a strandon van. – The ball is not on the beach.
A labdák nem a strandon vannak. – The balls are not on the beach.

See what I mean? And the positive sentences are no problem. A positive existence or whereabouts is simply expressed with van, vannak which, however, can be translated in English as: is, are / there is, there are.

SUMMARY:van = is, there isvannak = are, there arenincs = there is no, there isn’t anynincsenek = there are no, there aren’t anynem…van = is notnem…vannak = are not

This is a problem only in present tense. In any other tense and mood you use the same forms for both existence and wherebouts.

PAST:volt, voltak = was, were / there was, there werenem volt, nem voltak = wasn’t, weren’t / there was no, there were no

FUTURE:lesz, lesznek = will be / there will benem lesz, nem lesznek = won’t be / there won’t be

It is Nem hallottam rólad. You deny a verb and as you wrote there is no existence expressed. Such sentences are the same in English. There is no existence expressed in the sentence I didn’t hear from you, either. The negation is easier to recognize and to translate in Hungarian nem (you deny a verb) vs. nincs (you deny existence).

The problem is to recognize there is (van) and is (van). As you see, it is all the same in Hungarian.

A ház előtt van egy autó. – There is a car in front of the house.
Jól van. – He is fine.

Thank you 🙂 Indeed, not always that easy to recognize there is and is. In my exercise book, it’s written : “My husband is not at home” which is translated “Férjem nincs otthon”. In that case, I would have said “A férjem nem otthon”, ’cause he is not at home, she does not say “There is no husband in my home”…

Yes, is not and there is no are difficult, as well. When you say A férjem nincs otthon, you refer to the fact that your husband is not to be found at home. It is because you use nincs when referring to non-existence and whereabouts.

If you want to emphasize My husband is not at home (but somewhere else), then you say A férjem nem otthon van. Compare these sentences:

Nincs toll az asztalon. – There is no pen on the table.
Az asztalon nincs toll. – On the table there is no pen.
A toll nincs az asztalon. – The pen is not on the table. (negation of existence)
A toll nem az asztalon van. – The pen is not on the table, (but somewhere else).
Az asztalon nem toll van. – It’s not a pen that is on the table, (but something else).

Az IMPERATIVE alcímhoz egyszerű fordítás is célszerű:
legyen, legyenek = let be / let there be
de ilyen vagylagos fordítás is jó: should be / there should be
és: ne legyen, ne legyenek = shouldn’t be / there shouldn’t be
vagylagos: wouldn’t be / there wouldn’t be